Tale of The Hybrid
by sunshineyday
Summary: He didn't want to go into space. He didn't want to grow up in the cruel universe. Yet he had no other choice. Gohan is forced to travel throughout the universe, his journey full of adventures, hardships, and trials, with one goal: return home.
1. Prologue

**Hello friends! This is the prologue of Tale of The Hybrid, so enjoy!**

Gohan sat in front of the fire he'd created, wrapped tightly in his yellow-and-green coat. He sniffled as he wiped a tear off the side of his face, watching a strange, bug-like creature traverse the purple grass of this strange planet.

He wasn't hungry, and he wasn't cold, but he most certainly was _not_ happy. How was it that, in a seemingly short period of time, he'd managed to go from eating breakfast with his mother and father and going to meet his father's friends to being forced to survive on a seemingly empty planet in the middle of the universe somewhere? He shuddered as he ran through the day's events again…

 **Three Days Ago**

"G-Gohan!" Gohan heard his father scream as his "uncle" proceeded o stuff him inside the tiny silver-and-red space pod. He cried, like any four-and-a-half-year-old would, as he tried to squirm out of Raditz's grasp.

"Sorry little brother, but you are of no use to me now. Your son will suffice," the evil Saiyan laughed as he slammed the pod's door shut, trapping Gohan inside. The boy lacked knowledge on how to open the door, rendering him totally helpless against the situation.

"Daddy! Help me!" Gohan screamed as he pounded on the reddish-purple glass in vain. He saw his father sit up hallway, clutching his shattered ribs. Their eyes met for two seconds before Gohan looked down at the spacecraft in surprise. The pod was beginning to move; he was being sent out into the vast expanse called space.

"DADDY!" Gohan screamed as he pounded on the glass as hard as he could and watched the ground grow smaller and smaller, his tiny self growing father and farther away from the only place he knew as home. His sobbing did not cease; in fact, it only increased as the realization of the situation he was in began to sink in.

"NOOOOOOO!" TAKE ME BAAAAAAAAAAACK!" the boy screamed in vain. But it was too late—there was no reversing what had been done.

Gohan cried for what felt like hours as he watched the stars zoom by. He had always wondered what it was like to be an astronaut, and often daydreamed about epic intergalactic adventures, but this was _not_ how he wanted to do it. All he knew was that he was away from home, and he had no inkling of an idea as of how to get back.

And that made him furious.

So furious that, in his own rage, he began to kick and punch the inside of the ship in a fit of blind anger, tears of fury streaming down his face.

"I…,"

Slam!"

"want…,"

Slam!

"DAAAADYYYY!"

SLAM!"

Gohan slammed both his fists into the space pod's complicated control panel in front of him and, unfortunately, they broke clear through the metal and down to the floor of the round spacecraft. He ignored the stinging electric sparks flying out of the panel and his now-bleeding hands as the pod began to glitch out, speaking.

"Voice-voice recognition act-activated. Where would-would-would you like to go-go?" the broken machine inquired.

"I WANT TO GO TO DADDY!" Gohan all but screamed.

"Voice-voice command accepted-accepted. Your new-new destination is planet-planet Tudadi," the spacecraft responded.

The hybrid child was slammed into the side of the space pod as it changed its course drastically, heading for an entirely new location than the one his uncle had set. The metal colliding with the back of his head hurt a lot, causing him to cry even harder as he was now headed straight to this Tu-whatever planet. As he buried his face in his knees, though, Gohan felt the fatigue of the previous events catching up to him—and as much as he fought it, he just couldn't win as he slowly drifted into sleep.

* * *

Gohan woke up, confused and entirely befuddled. Where was he? How long had he been asleep? Where was his father? Where—

Oh.

Gohan sighed, empty of any more tears, and rocked himself back and forth as he watched the stars fly by, wincing at the occasional spark of electricity sputtering out of the control panel he'd broken earlier.

The stars were pretty at least, and comforted him somewhat. Memories of stargazing with his father flashed through his mind, and the boy felt a tear stream down his face. He'd not been gone that long, he was certain, but he still missed his parents a dreadful lot.

The stars zoomed by for minutes, hours, days? In this space pod, the young boy seemed to lose any sense of time he'd had on earth due to the lack of the sun and a clock. He figured it had only been a couple of hours at the most, but an entire day wasn't totally out of the question. He occupied himself with trying to name some of the stars, and imagining the kinds of people that might live on the few planets he passed, trying to shorten time.

But there isn't much to do in a tiny space pod, and so he was on the brink of pulling all his hair out just to cure the boredom when suddenly he felt something similar to turbulence in an airplane.

"W-what's happening?" he asked the machine, alarmed. There was no reply as he felt the pod jerk again, rougher this time, slamming him into the side of the pod and causing him to yelp an involuntary "OW!" He rubbed the side of his head and sighed.

Gohan looked out the red-tinted window and saw that he was approaching a planet. The planet as a whole was colored orange, speckled with patches of purple while white swirls of clouds similar to the earth's covered it. He realized that this must be his destination, that planet what's-its-name the ship had mentioned earlier, and that the previous disturbance was him entering the planet's atmosphere.

But something was not right, and Gohan seemed to sense that. He glanced at the still-broken control panel of the metal sphere and a realization hit him.,

He had studied airplanes and rocket jets when his mother forced him to before and he figured that this spacecraft was no different. Seeing that the control panel was the main source of all the pod's equipment, he realized that he had foolishly demolished any of its landing gear in his blind rage.

"Oh no…," the young boy moaned involuntarily as he felt his stomach churn. He was indeed heading to land on the orange ground of this new planet, but the space pod lacked the brains, if you will, to do so safely. Knowing there was nothing he could do about it, he braced himself against the pod and awaited a probably imminent death.

Screaming, he watched the ground grow closer and closer.

It was almost there…

It seemed just inches away now…

SLAM!

The pod crashed roughly, skidding into the ground and leaving a long, deep trail behind it instead of landing directly into the smaller crater it _should_ have created. After a thousand feet or so, roughly, the miniature mode of intergalactic transportation came to a halt, making no noise other than the hissing cry broken machines make.

Within it, the four-and-a-half-year-old sat leaned against the back of the metal sphere, his eyes closed in unconsciousness after being whacked around a little too much. He was to remain in that position for two days, before his adventure truly began…

* * *

Gohan awoke for the second time since he was separated from his home, this time cringing at a massive headache he had somehow acquired.

"That's strange, I shouldn't be alive right now…," he though. He decided, however, not to question it as he tried to pry open the door. Upon doing so he found it jammed, and proceeded to kick the glass open with a strength he didn't know he possessed, knowing that the ship would never run again anyways.

Gohan stepped out of the pod and immediately noticed the intense oven-like heat that engulfed him, quickly become amazed at what he saw before him. Miles upon miles of empty, barren desert were all around him. It looked similar to a desert on earth, but the dry, cracked, dusty ground was colored bright orange, and it lacked the dreadfully spiky cacti. The orange reminded him of his father's bright orange gi…

"No! I can't think about home right now—I need to focus," Gohan told himself as he looked behind him. There was not a drop of water to be seen, and this caused him to worry. Suddenly an idea struck him, and he turned back to the space pod, crawling back inside it and running his hands across the inside.

His efforts were successful, as he found a small compartment at the top and quickly opened it. Gohan pulled out a small sphere that had a button on the side of it. Curiously, he pressed it and a small blue flame began to continuously emerge from the side. He grinned, and reached further into the compartment, producing a rather deadly-looking blade. Gohan felt relieved to know that the space pod held these two things—he'd read plenty of books on wilderness survival just for fun and these were two things he knew were important.

He emerged from the space pod and took of his thick yellow-and-green-coat, tying the sleeves of it around his waist. He put the alienated lighter in his pocket and put the knife in his boot, turning to face the vast, void-like field with a determined expression.

"Well, here goes…,"

And he began to walk.

* * *

Gohan licked his lips as he glanced around in desperation. He'd been walking for hours now, and yet he saw no trace of water, food, or life _anywhere_. The thought that this planet was a barren wasteland possessing no life of amenities to support life had crossed his mind one too many times, yet he always forced himself to think of other things.

And yet, after all this time of trying not to give up hope, he felt himself beginning to do just that.

His stomach was as empty as the desert depriving him of food, and his mouth was just as dry. His feet ached and he felt sleep drawing near; to be blunt, he was exhausted. But he didn't want to sleep—no, he couldn't sleep. He had to keep pressing on. Thoughts of his mother and father's smiling faces, their happiness and just the fact that they believed he could do anything drove him forwards. No, he was not going to give up just yet.

His self-encouragement was a huge success.

Gohan gasped as he saw a speck on the horizon of the desert. Was it a mirage? He'd read about those before, and his current situation seemed to support the fact that it could be one. But he was way too desperate to believe that; with every last ounce of energy he possessed he sprinted towards the speck.

Slowly, as he did so, brown trees with purple leaves became visible. There were many of them, and he could already hear the sweet, roaring sound of water nearby. It soon became clear—he had discovered this planet's version of a forest.

Gohan ran into the forest with haste, his feet pounding against the purple grass as he made his way to a towering waterfall that continuously drained itself into a lake. Making sure to remove his books and the lighter off himself, he eagerly leaped into the water and submerged himself completely into the lake, gulping down the water as he sank. He was grateful for the water and its… liquid-y properties, happily knowing that for whatever reason his life was spared—at least, for now.

In the next few hours, Gohan had managed to catch little fish-like creatures in the water, gutting them with the knife and cooking them over a fire he'd been able to start with the lighter he'd found, ever more thankful for his uncle's hidden emergency survival kit. He gorged on the delicate meat, too hungry to mind the manners his mother embedded into him.

* * *

And so, after and amazingly satisfying meal, the four-and-a-half-year-old wrapped his coat around him and sat by the fire, his suspicions about chilly nights on this planet being correct. He could not, however, disconnect his thoughts from home, and tears continued to stream down his face as he cried quieter than before, thoughts running through his mind. Would he ever get home? Would he die on this planet? Would he be wished back with the dragon balls if he did so? And if he was wished back, would he be wished back to earth, or to the place he died? He really didn't know.

"Daddy… I miss you… I wanna go home…,"

It was right then and there, after that internal statement, that Gohan decided he would not tolerate homesickness any longer. No matter what happened, he would never take his eyes of his foal of returning home, no matter who or what came into his path. He was going to try his best to get back to his little home on earth, and he was going to do whatever it took. Gohan smiled to himself as he stared at the stars above him, a new ray of determination within him.

And so a new person was born—Gohan was no longer a little child, and no longer was his power held solely within his crying lungs. He was now a warrior, a determined person with a goal. And that goal was not going to be wavered.

 **Well, I hope you enjoyed it! This prologue was necessary to set the stage, so to speak, but the rest of the chapters should be slight longer (by about 800 word or so).**

 **See you next chapter!**


	2. Survival

**Hello! The first chapter of Tale of the Hybrid is HERE! Before we get started, though, I want to thank all the wonderful, wonderful people who reviewed/favorited/followed this story! You guys are AMAZING!**

 **Legacy of I: Thank you! Your kind words have encouraged me to keep writing further.**

 **XxTerroKing23xX: Thank you for your advice. I see this website as a great tool to better my writing, especially when I get good advice! I did indeed check out your story, Abandoned Memories, and have added it to my favorites.**

 **enarmonios: I'm glad you enjoyed my prologue! And fear not—it will be revealed eventually as to why Gohan wasn't wished back with the dragon balls, but that is going to be in later chapters.**

 **TS24: I'm very happy you enjoyed it, I hope you enjoy the future chapters as well!**

 **And so the next chapter begins...**

"YES! Dinner!" exclaimed a hungry Gohan as he gorged on the fish he'd caught before the planet's two suns had set. Thankfully he'd gone fishing with his father on earth, and so what he lacked in strength or power he had in skill and quick reflexes as they had never used fishing poles.

Gohan had awoken earlier that morning confused, startled, and afraid. He cried when he remembered where he was, although he didn't sob and he was able to calm down much faster in order to catch a decent breakfast of the little, swimming creatures living in the lake.

To start off his first day of solitude, Gohan began to train himself as best he could, given he didn't have a teacher. He started with the simple exercises he'd watched his father do whenever he snuck out of his room, as he had been unable to tolerate studying anymore. After that was finished he worked on perfecting his fighting stance, trying very hard to copy his father's from memory, and practiced his kicks and punches on a huge boulder so his hand or foot no longer hurt when he hit something. In short, his first session of training had proven to be quite interesting and surprisingly effective.

The rest of his first day alone was quite boring as Gohan sat tiredly in front of the lake, staring at it and actually missing the dull studying he had to do back at home. He wondered what he would have been studying today in 10th grade biology and algebra 2, and also what his mother was doing at the moment. Hours later, when his stomach rumbled deeply and he was craving water, was when he decided to fish for some dinner, having totally forgotten about lunch.

And that's where Gohan was now—wolfing down a pile of cooked fish like it was his last meal (although it could be for all he knew) in front of a roaring fire. It tasted rather bland, and it was a smidge on the burnt side as he was paranoid about uncooked meat, but catching and cooking it himself proved to be the only seasoning he needed, so to speak. He was, in fact, quite liking this newfound independence when he heard it.

 _Snap!_

Gohan immediately stood and dropped the fish, wielding his knife in quite an awkward manner and trying to enter his father's fighting stance but failing at that as well, unable to concentrate over his fear. Terrified, he spoke into the darkness of the forest, trying to sound as courageous as he could.

"W-who's there?! I'm warning you, I'm armed and uh, I'm also… I'm also dangerous!"

It was a very, very good thing that the threat was not an intelligent being—the boy's tone was so unconvincing that a person would have laughed genuinely and killed him on the spot. But that might have actually almost proven to be better as a large animal appeared. Gohan was so terrified his weapon began to shake violently.

And the boy had all the reason to be afraid—the frightening beast stood six feet tall on all fours. Its fuzzy, bright green torso had the curvature of a cheetah, while its legs were like nothing he'd ever seen before—the closest thing to relate the four appendages to would be a spider's legs, but black and just as fuzzy as the torso. Its wolf-like tail swished back and forth in anticipation, but the worst part was the foul creature's head. Extremely massive, you could say that the bright green head of the animal was a mix of snake, wasp, and spider. It had a wasp's shape and antennae, but its four eyes were like that of a spider's, while its snake-like tongue hissed wickedly.

All in all, it was a terrifying creature. (A/N: I really tried to use my imagination whilst creating this beast. Also, I'm terrified of wasps and spiders.)

Our poor, poor young Gohan stared right at the creature, so terrified he was paralyzed physically and mentally—unable to process anything through his brain other than that monster's evil, pitch-black eyes that seemed even more hellish in the flickering glow of the fire.

Another scratchy hiss, however, snapped him back into attention.

And, just like any normal four-and-a-half-year-old would, Gohan dropped his knife and took off running, screaming bloody murder.

"HEEEEEEEEEEELP!" the toddler cried as he ran as fast as he could, adrenaline fueling him the entire way. Nimbly he dodged trees, hopped over rocks, and ducked under branches, occasionally looking behind to see the monster hot on his trail.

Now was one of those times where usually his father would step in and save him, but he knew that that was not, unfortunately, going to happen. He was on his own. The young boy continued to run away from the beast, terrified.

Suddenly Gohan made a right turn through the forest and suddenly felt himself fall flat on his face and somersault five times, landing on his stomach.

 _"_ _Did… did I just trip?!"_ he thought angrily as he began to stand up.

His anger dissipated into fear, however, as he looked in front of him. The monster was standing right there, just staring at him with those horrible, horrible eyes. Gohan was silent as he slowly stood, and was just about to make another run for it when suddenly the creature hissed angrily and made a strange noise not too different from the noise he would have heard if he witnessed the evil Cell absorbing a human. He paused momentarily, thoroughly confused, when suddenly the creature's mouth opened and a weird goop colored fluorescent yellow emerged from it.

Gohan dodged the goop instinctively and watched it hit the trunk of a tree, where it was instantly stuck for good, quickly realizing that the goop was no good and extremely sticky; a self-defense mechanism designed to immobilize the enemy upon contact. So Gohan was forced to quickly dodge each ball of the stuff that the creature spat towards him with ease, quickly leading his enemy away from the other goop so he didn't step in it and trap himself.

He was successfully doing so when suddenly he felt a pain in his right shoulder. Wincing, the boy suddenly caught a glimpse of fluorescent yellow in his peripheral vision and quickly changed his gaze to it.

Gohan had been struck with the goop!

He suddenly put all of his attention onto his shoulder, grimacing at its sticky texture and pondering on how he was going to get rid of it.

That was proven to be an amateur mistake as the monster lunged forwards with a hiss.

Gohan was caught off guard at the sudden attack, and found himself pinned to the ground. It was then that he found out this beast was very, _very_ heavy, for as it sat on him he found he could not move an inch. His eyes widened as he stared at the creature's face for that split second, and suddenly he knew that death was upon him. In this moment he felt a sudden fire light within him, even though it was extremely small, and a struggle within began.

 _"_ _Come on, Gohan! Kill that thing! You know you're capable—you were able to head butt that alien on earth!"_

 _"_ _But that thing is scary, and besides I can't move at all!"_

 _"_ _Stop being a baby, you'll never get home if you don't try!"_

 _"_ _But daddy always saves me! Why is now so different?"_

Gohan was currently faced with two different sides of himself at once—warrior and, well, peace-loving scholar. It was a 50-50 struggle, a push and pull of his Saiyan side and his Human side, of fierceness and of tameness. And the hybrid had to choose. He could choose sit forever alone in constant fear, or emerge victorious—at the cost of facing his fears.

 _"_ _Daddy can't save you because he's probably dead—killed by that that so-called uncle, and all because YOU couldn't save him."_

Gohan's mind snapped at this last thought, and he bared his teeth in an animal-like way, determination written all over his face. He waited for the right opportunity, and seized it when it came.

The hybrid curled his legs up and kicked the beast's stomach as hard as he possibly could, untangling himself from his opponent's grip as the creature fell onto its back, obviously in pain at the hard blow.

"I'm not afraid of you!" Gohan yelled fearlessly as he entered a perfect fighting stance. He gritted his teeth, gulped in a large amount of air, and took off charging at the beast, who had begun to recover. He fearlessly collided with it, screaming rabidly and attacking the infernal creature with a flurry of punches.

The monster hissed in pain with each hit as it found itself rendered vulnerable. Gohan, all the while, was ignorant to anything but one thought: win. He felt nothing, thought nothing, and saw nothing other than that goal, smirking mercilessly as he vanished into the air. The beast looked around for him, unable to process what had happened when suddenly it felt a sharp pain run through its neck, and Gohan reappeared, landing gently on the ground with his arms folded.

The head of the monster fell with a thud, a bright pink liquid gushing out of it along with the now-headless corpse that also fell over (A/N: Writing this right now, I'm actually kind of sad it died). The victorious winner stood there in silence, staring at it, when suddenly his demeanor changed.

Just as it had on earth after he attacked his uncle, Gohan's power dropped like a dead fly and faded like steam into air. His Saiyan side had overcome his Human side temporarily, and it had been for the best, but now his Human side took over again— at least, for now.

He stood there, panting, staring at the two pieces of one creature, shocked beyond belief yet also delighted that _he_ was its killer. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he could hold his own against a monster like that, let alone defeat it!

The hybrid child shook his head clear, grabbing the body by the tail and lugging it back to camp—he was, at this time, extremely thankful for his excessive intelligence, for he had mentally noted where he'd been while he was running and fighting so he could remember his way back to camp.

And so that was where our young hero was headed.

* * *

About fifteen minutes later Gohan found himself kneeling over behind a tree, vomiting. He had gutted fish before—that was nothing new—but never in his life had he experienced something _this_ repugnant and vile. He had cut the beast open, hoping to clean it and eat it (he was really tired of fish, or whatever he'd been eating).

But no, apparently he was not destined to do this. As soon as his trusty blade severed the creature's flesh, he almost instantly ran away in tears.

Is any further description necessary?

Now feeling better, though, Gohan wiped his mouth and stood, plugging his nose as he made his way back to the creature. Knowing that _that_ ordeal was over for good, he quickly lit a nearby branch on fire with his trusty lighter and tossed it over to the foul corpse. As the monster burned, Gohan ran as far away from it as possible and laid down on his back with a sigh, staring at the stars.

He thought about home, and how his parents must be worried sick—if they were alive. It pained him to think it, but it _was_ a possibility—he knew his uncle was stronger than his father at that time. He missed them dreadfully, and mentally promised that he'd do whatever it took to get home.

Soon afterwards the boy felt sleep draw near, and was soon in peaceful dreams of home.

* * *

The days passed in this manner, minus the whole nearly-getting-eaten-by-a-monster part. Gohan trained a little bit each day, getting better at his stances, punches, and kicks. The only time he'd been a flawless warrior was when his Saiyan side took over against that beast. He had yet to encounter another creature such as the Tudadi Terror (he'd dubbed it early the morning after that whole ordeal happened) or be in any dangerous situation, so his Human side was dominant at the moment. Gohan did not meet any people nor did he find any civilization of any sort. Given he wasn't looking for one, that wasn't much of a shocker.

In reality, Gohan was waiting.

Almost all his thoughts were on earth, on home, on his mother and father, and on the dragon balls. He had no way of knowing whether his father was alive or not, but if he was wouldn't he have wished Gohan home?

Of course, the answer to this was also impossible to know. The dragon balls could have been destroyed somehow, or maybe that horrible Piccolo guy his dad talked about occasionally had died. Maybe they didn't have the power to transport people within the living realm.

Or maybe it was because his father, and all his friends, were dead.

He'd not been joking when he told himself that his uncle probably killed his father when he'd been running from that creature.

 _"_ _No, stop thinking like that, you idiot! There's a perfectly good reason that they haven't wished you home!"_ he had tried to convince himself.

And yet Gohan couldn't help but feel like there wasn't. Did his parents hate him all along, only under the ruse that they had loved him? Maybe he shouldn't have snuck off so often when he was studying, and he probably should have trained _somewhat_ with his father to make him proud. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he'd been completely useless on earth.

Gohan pondered these thoughts for a long, long while, content on staying at his camp for now.

* * *

"Wow, I've been here for a really long time now," mused Gohan aloud as he carved another tally mark into the light brown bark of a nearby tree. Ever since he'd gotten here, he'd made a point of marking a tally on the tree he chose with his knife every day. And now he had six sets of five carved on the tree, plus the extra one he just made.

"Let's see, six times five… plus the extra one… I've been here for a month now."

Gohan's face visibly saddened at those words—he had expected to be home by now.

 _"_ _But it looks like that isn't gonna happen…,"_ he sighed internally.

Sitting down in the purple grass with his back to the tree, Gohan examined the campsite around him. Over the course of a month he had built a miniature lean-to, and had also discovered some sort of tasty fruit that he stockpiled greedily inside it. The purple leaves of the trees were totally still, the grass unmoving. The orange ground remained un-shifted, and the only sound was that of the small waterfall he depended so heavily upon.

He closed his eyes in sadness.

Gohan knew that he should be searching this planet for civilization or a spaceship, but truth be told he didn't want to leave. He didn't know if he'd find another oasis such as this one, and so far it hadn't rained a drop. He'd be giving up an endless supply of food as well as water, and besides that he was terrified of what he might find out in this world—heaven knows he didn't want to encounter another Tudadi Terror!

That was his Human side speaking.

Gohan's Saiyan side told him to get off his butt and do something about his problems, to go out and find a spaceship. And if anything got in his way? Kill it. Destroy it. Nobody could stop him, he had the ability to do almost anything. He was smart—he'd know if food or water was around. He was capable of survival, he just had to _know_ he was.

This struggle between his Human side and his Saiyan side was what kept him stationary for so long.

So long, unfortunately, that fate seemed to grow impatient with his indecisiveness, because soon something happened that changed the direction of his future totally.

* * *

Gohan had just finished a hearty lunch and was now training himself, pretending the rocks were the bad guys and he was the superhero. His skill and technique had increased greatly since his arrival on the planet, although he would still be considered a very pathetic threat to anyone of relative strength.

He had just put a crack in a rock when suddenly he felt the ground begin to shake. Startled, he fell to the ground and waited for it to stop. After a few minutes the ground did settle, and Gohan began to climb one of the tallest trees in the forest and scanning the world. Was it an earthquake; or rather, a Tudadi-quake? He looked at the atmosphere around him.

Despite the endless miles of desert, everything was fine. But wait… what was that? In the distance, he saw a strange speck lodged in the planet's orange soil. As Gohan squinted, the speck started to take shape. It was a strange metal object, shaped like a sphere, seemingly stuck upside down with twelve pointy legs sticking up in the air. A small stream of smoke rose into the sky, spreading and eventually fading into the blue. He was thoroughly shocked.

Was that… was that a spaceship?!

Gohan gasped as he quickly slid down the tree, sprinting out into the desert, equipped with his blade just in case. He knew there had to be somebody on that ship, but he wasn't concerned with people right now. No, all that mattered was when—if—the ship took off again, he would be on it, no matter what. He was going to leave this planet.

 **Well, that sums up chapter one! Who is in this newly crashed spaceship, and are they friend or foe? Will Gohan actually leave Tudadi after a month of surviving on it? Whatever the future holds, you can only find out in the next chapter!**

 **Until next time!**


	3. A New Acquaintance

**Bum ba-da-bum! Chapter two is here! First I just want to thank everyone for favoriting, following and reviewing the Tale of the Hybrid! Oh, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to put this in, but…**

 **Disclaimer: I (like everyone else) DO NOT own Dragonball Z or anything pertaining to it!**

 **enarmonios— I'm glad you liked everything I put in the last chapter! As far as the moon/great ape transformation goes, Tudadi does not in fact possess a moon. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to add it in… you'll just have to wait and see!**

 **XxTerroKing23xX— Thanks again for another awesome review! I suspect a lot of people probably are suspecting what you're suspecting when it comes to the spaceship, but… you'll have to read the chapter! I will take your advice and take my time as well—I do want to do my very best on this story, and so I won't rush!**

 **Lastly, I want to apologize for the large gap in-between updates. Rest assured, I will try to update more frequently!**

 **But now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoy the next chapter of Tale of the Hybrid!**

Gohan jogged at a steady pace, not really in too much of a rush to get to the spaceship as he knew that it wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. He just hoped with all his might that whoever was in it was _not_ an enemy, as he still wasn't very confident in his fighting skills—in all his four and a half years, not once had he _truly_ fought or even sparred with anybody.

Suddenly Gohan slowed down his running and stopped, staring at the spaceship that was now about a hundred feet off as a thought occurred to him. If he was lacking in experience, and this _was_ an enemy, why in the world would he be running towards it? Shouldn't he be running _away_ from it?

 _"No, running away won't do me any good—if I hadn't run away from my 'uncle' then daddy would definitely be alive, and I wouldn't be in this situation. I can't run away—I'd rather die than do that again,"_ he thought, mentally slapping himself for being so foolish.

So the hybrid continued running towards the spaceship, now prepared mentally, at least, for a fight. As he grew closer he could begin to smell the smoke that rose from where the ship's engine compartment apparently was. He could hear coughing, too—it sounded horrible and thick, like the person's lungs were filled with the black gas. Not wanting to initiate a possible imminent death, Gohan waited for the alien to emerge from the wreckage. As he waited, he suddenly saw a flash of blue and gasped as he felt something whack him in the back of his neck.

With a cry of pain, the demi-Saiyan fell to the ground, overwhelmed with blackness and silence.

* * *

 _Gohan looked around him, confused. How did he get into space? And why—more like how—did ne not need a spacesuit?_

 _"HAAAAAAAAA!"_

 _The hybrid looked to the left and just barely dodged a yellow energy beam._

 _"Who's there?!" he cried, terrified. He suddenly heard a laugh behind him and whirled around, startled. What he saw, however, was even more startling. Floating right there in front of him was… another him? Wait, what?_

 _But… this Gohan was different—he was scowling furiously at him and had a flaming yellow aura around him that made the boy appear to be completely yellow, not another speck of another color existing on him. He looked thirsty for blood._

 _"Are you… are you me?" Gohan asked nervously. The yellow Gohan growled, baring his teeth in an animalistic way._

 _"FIGHT ME!" the clone screamed as he charged at Gohan._

 _The boy was terrified but he powered up. He didn't understand why yellow-Gohan wanted to fight, and he didn't want to either, but it seemed he had no choice. The hybrid powered up, noting the bright, royal-blue aura around him, and finished just in time to block a punch to the jaw. He frantically threw a weak punch at the yellow-Gohan's stomach, but yellow-Gohan caught his fist and started to tighten his grip on it, causing Gohan's fingers to cut deep into his hand and shattering the bones._

 _He screamed in pain as he started to cry, terrified._

 _"Please! Don't do this! There doesn't have to be violence!" he pleaded, fresh tears streaming down his face. Horror shot through his entire being as he stared at yellow-Gohan's evil glare._

 _"SO pathetically SOFT!" the evil counter-part hissed as he nailed Gohan hard in the side with his foot. Gohan screamed as he felt himself fly into space continuously, unable to stop himself when suddenly he felt another kick to his other side and was sent flying in the opposite direction._

 _Gohan continued screaming when he suddenly saw the yellow clone appear in front of him and catch him roughly by the shoulders._

 _"YOU'RE TOO…," yellow-Gohan cried angrily as he kneed Gohan in the stomach, causing the boy to double over in pain,_

 _"GET STRONGER!"_

 _Gohan felt yellow-Gohan's clasped-together fists nail the top of his head and himself falling into nowhere, screaming yet again. The hybrid boy then felt himself run into a body and began to turn around when suddenly he felt a yellow arm grasp his neck tightly and begin to constrict his airway._

 _"H-help… me…!" Gohan gasped._

* * *

Gohan awoke with a start, breathing heavily.

 _"Owwww… my head… where… where am I?"_ Gohan's eyes opened and he was greeted with blurry vision, unable to process his surroundings.

 _"Why… why do I feel... so… so weak…?"_

Setting that weird dream aside for the moment, he inhaled deeply as he blinked, his vision starting to come back to him. For some reason he felt like he'd just ran three marathons in a row, low on energy and on strength. With all the energy he had, Gohan looked at the environment he was in.

The room was decently sized. The walls and floors were made of some sort of material—probably metal—that he'd never seen before, kind of like how Raditz's space pod had been made out of a foreign material as well. There was a strange object in the left corner that resembled a bed, and there was a table, a chair, and a picture of a strange creature that had feminine-like features in the other corner. On the wall in front of him, in front of a huge, rectangular window, there was a large, rather complicated control panel and a chair.

 _"I'm in the spaceship that crashed!"_ Gohan's mind screamed, causing him to raise his guard.

Suddenly there was a hissing noise, and he watched as a door on the side opened, fear shooting through him as a strange, bug-like alien appeared. The creature's exoskeleton-like skin resembled an insect's greatly, except it was colored a pale royal blue. He had odd spikes protruding from his shoulder blades, and he stood at an extremely tall height, but perhaps it was his eyes that startled Gohan the most—they were huge, perfectly round and bright red, looking like they were made of solid glass.

As soon as their gazes met the alien cursed and immediately entered a solid fighting stance.

"You're awake you little Saiyan brat!" he exclaimed.

A look of confusion passed over the boy's face.

 _"Saiyan...? Oh, that's what my dad and uncle are, Saiyans… he must think I'm one because of my tail... MY TAIL!"_ Gohan screamed internally as he glanced behind him. Sure enough, he was strung up to the wall, a scratchy rope tied way too tightly around his tail. That explained his lack of energy, as he'd had this problem before once when he'd been playing in the forest at home.

Gohan's attention snapped back to the alien.

"Please… mister, it's not… not what you think!" Boy, he didn't realize it was so hard to talk… curse his stupid tail for being so weak! Gohan watched as the alien folded his arms and spat on the ground.

"Tell me, did the others order you to follow me after you _destroyed_ my planet?" the strange person demanded as he approached the boy. Gohan winced in fear.

"No… I don't… know… what you're… you're talking about…," he replied. The alien snorted, clearly unconvinced.

"Exactly. It's just _coincidence_ that we _happened_ to meet on the _same_ damn planet, correct?" he inquired sarcastically.

"It… has to be… because I had nothing… nothing to do with those other… Saiyans…," Gohan explained. The alien stepped forwards, kneeling down to put his face up to the boy's, scaring poor Gohan to death.

"That's just what I'd expect you to say, you monster. Who sent you after me?! Huh?! Tell me!"

Gohan was unaffected by the intentionally hurtful words for some reason—perhaps it was the fact that he _knew_ he wasn't a monster—and soon his intelligent brain began to work its wonders and theorizing, Gohan mentally thanking his mother yet again for his dreaded studies in the process.

"If I was sent to _follow_ … you, then how did I… I get here _before_ you?" he argued. This caused the alien to take a step back, and if his face could physically contort if would have appeared flustered.

"You have a point kid… but that doesn't mean I believe you! Enough with this petty crap, I want answers! And I'm going to start with where are we?!" he cried, startling the boy a bit. Gohan gulped, replying,

"All I know is that we're on… a planet called… Tudadi…."

The alien folded his arms and peered out the desert.

"Are there any other people living here?"

"I never tried looking because… because I was afraid that there was nothing but desert… desert out there."

Silence.

"How long have you been on this planet, kid?"

Gohan's face brightened significantly. He was starting to believe him! This was great! Fantastic! Spectacular! He was going to cry with joy, but opted to remain composed.

"A little over a month, sir." It was getting easier to talk.

The alien walked up to the control panel and started to press buttons rapidly on the massive device. Gohan watched curiously and heard the alien curse as an odd beeping sound was made, and the control panel hissed, spitting out smoke. The creature then walked over to a drawer and pulled out what appeared to be handcuffs. Gohan watched curiously as the handcuffs were secured tightly around his wrists. He untied the boy's tail, causing the hybrid to fill with relief at the release of pressure.

"The ship is pretty much dead, and I don't have the parts to repair it. I don't want to kill you just yet, so I'm taking you with me to see if there are any people out in this desert. If they're hungry monsters, then they can eat you alive instead of me!" the alien said mockingly.

Gohan inwardly screamed in horror at that thought… a whole bunch of disgusting, alien creatures ripping and pulling apart his screaming—

"You're probably thinking of bolting as soon as we get out, but I wouldn't do that. You see, those handcuffs are special. You know why? They're filled with jeta, a highly lethal poison. If you try to remove them without the key you'll be injected immediately. I wear the key around my neck, but don't try to take it—it has a button on it that I can press to inject you manually. Am I clear?" the alien explained, annoyed at the boy. Gohan didn't understand why he was annoyed but nodded, terrified. The alien nodded back in approval.

"Good. We'll be heading north—that forest nearby looks pretty desolate, and besides, if anyone were near they'd be running out here already. Alright, you brat, get going!" yelled the creature as he kicked Gohan forwards until he fell out the door. The Saiyan child landed with a thud on his knees and quickly stood, his energy having been restored quickly, and began to follow the alien as they began their northward trek.

"So… I'm Gohan. What's your name?" Gohan inquired after a few painfully silent minutes. The person walking next to him grunted.

"The name's Alto. Now shut up." he replied.

* * *

Gohan flopped down on his back with a heavy sigh. The first day had proven to be very exhausting. They walked _all day_ , and Gohan felt like his feet were going to bleed or blister or something really painful like that. His shoes had been made for walking but they were well worn, and after a month he had grown just enough that they were just the slightest bit too small, almost like some cruel torture method.

The boy had tried to make conversation with Alto, but he quickly figured out his captor was _not_ the talkative type. He didn't push for conversation too much either because he was shy himself. So he had occupied himself with thoughts of home.

 _"If mom and daddy are still alive, then they're probably worried sick for me. But I'm beginning to think that they're really dead… which means I'm an orphan and I have no home."_ The hybrid fought tears madly as they had walked, not wanting to annoy his captor any further, and tried not to think about it. These internal efforts passed the time rather quickly, and it seemed like minutes had passed when he noticed the two suns had set completely and he watched Alto light a small fire. Gohan had laid down by it and licked his lips.

"Do you… have any water?" he asked nervously. Alto glanced at the boy and pulled something out of his pocket. It was a small, silver remote that had a big yellow button on it. Gohan watched curiously as Alto picked up a large rock nearby, pointed the remote at it, and pressed the button.

A bright glow encased the rock and as soon as it faded, Gohan was surprised. The rock was now a tall glass of ice cold water!

"Wow! How did you do that?" Gohan asked, sitting up. Alto frowned.

"Are you stupid? Everybody knows that a Re-Former rearranges the molecules in something to create something new," he sneered as he handed the glass to the boy. Gohan frowned, a bit hurt, but gulped the glass down in record time. Setting it down, he felt the need to ask a very important question.

"Um… Alto? How come the other Saiyans… destroyed your planet?"

Alto looked up from his staring contest with the fire, and Gohan although not even his mouth moved in the slightest bit the boy could tell he was surprised by this question. He folded his arms and took a deep breath.

"You ruthless monsters had no reason to destroy it, kid. That's what you do—you kill pointlessly," he responded. Gohan shifted his weight a little, biting his lip.

"So um… what was your home planet like… what was it called?" he inquired nervously. He didn't want to upset Alto, but he was curious. The alien's voice was filled with sorrow and longing as he spoke hesitantly, and Gohan absorbed every word.

"My home planet… was called Arlia. Arlia was the most beautiful planet in the universe—I remember going for long, wonderful rides through the desert on my giant worm Yumo with the rest of my people. That truly was my favorite thing to do. Everyone on Arlia was nice, I loved them all as my own kin. We were happy, peaceful and prospering, despite our rule under that awful king Moai—that is, until your Saiyan _friends_ showed up. At first my people put them in prison, but those… monsters escaped and they killed the evil dictator we hated so much. Everybody was rejoicing, happy, and my brother Atla had finally gotten his wife back, but I had my suspicions…

* * *

 _"Brother, I'm going to go see Lemlia. Come join us in our celebrations!" Atla cried as he ran up to Alto. Alto looked at his brother and laughed, although it was an empty laugh. He too was happy that that awful Moai was dead, but something didn't seem right. He could sense it, something inside him warning him of something bad that was going to happen. He was too cautious of a person to ignore it._

 _"I will be celebrating with you in a minute, but first I have something to take care of," he replied. Alto's brother waved and turned around, running away as he yelled,_

 _"Okay! Don't take too long, brother—the festivities will be glorious!"_

 _Alto waved back and watched as Atla disappeared out of sight. He then sighed and walked off, heading for the planet's spaceship hangar. After fifteen minutes, he arrived._

 _The Arlian hangar was very different from an earth hangar—instead of a building, it was a large, empty field surrounded by a stone fence, and it held plenty of identical ships, each one labeled with a different symbol in the Arlian language._

 _Alto walked up to the spaceship marked as his and opened the door, approaching the control panel and turning it on. He had the ship running and was planning to use it as an emergency escape-route in case the aliens returned. He was about head back to the festivities when suddenly he looked out the window and saw a bright energy beam heading straight for the planet._

 _"Oh no!" Alto cried, running to the door. He hopped out of the spaceship and began to run to his brother, to save him—but as he looked back into the sky, he noticed that the beam was close. Too close._

 _"It takes me fifteen minutes just to get to my brother… there's not enough time… dammit!" he said to himself as he stopped his running. What should he do? He didn't want to die, but he didn't want to watch his brother die either…_

 _"If I stay alive I can keep the Arlian race alive… to honor my brother, Lemlia, and everyone else. Yes… this must be done," he said as he turned around, hopping back into the spaceship. Frantically, he closed the door and typed madly on the control panel, pressing buttons and occasionally glancing up at the sky. The beam was getting closer by the minute—it was already too close for comfort. He knew he had a slim chance of getting out of there, but he was going to try. He had to._

 _The beam was closer…_

 _It was almost there…_

 _"Launching in 3… 2… 1…,"_

 _Alto sighed in relief as he felt the spaceship lift off the ground, and he quickly steered it away from the blast and into the starry sky. He made it! He was alive!_

 _But, his survival had a price._

 _Alto turned back to watch in horror as his beloved planet, his home, and all his loved ones exploded in a bright blast of light blue. If he could cry he would have been sobbing, but instead he felt nothing but a deep pain inside his heart. It hurt more than death itself, he quickly deduced._

 _"But I'm doing this for you, Atla… and you as well, Lemlia. I'm doing this for all of you. For the sake of Arlia, and the Arlian race, I will keep going, and will one day deliver justice to those Saiyans. I promise you, Arlia, my people, I will avenge you. Farewell forever, my friends…,"_

 _There was a bitter silence as he stared at the space where Arlia used to float._

* * *

"I vowed right then and there to kill those worthless Saiyans, one day. But I don't see that happening, as that was two days ago, and I crash landed here. Who knows where those Saiyans are headed for now."

Gohan stood, staring at the ground with angry tears in his eyes and balled up his fists.

"Those Saiyans deserve to die. Your planet shouldn't have been destroyed," he said quietly. There was silence for a few minutes when suddenly Gohan yawned and fell on his back, staring at the stars as he said goodnight to his alien captor.

Sleep soon fell upon the hybrid Saiyan, and he was thrust into a world of dreams. Little did he know that as he slept Alto was watching him with curiosity. The truth was that the alien was surprised at the boy's words—he never knew a Saiyan to condemn others of his kind for killing before.

 _"Could there possibly be more to you than meets the eye?"_ Alto wondered as he too drifted off into a light sleep.

* * *

When Gohan awoke at first he was confused at the bindings on his hands—than heavens he didn't try to remove them before he remembered why they were there. He sat up and yawned loudly, looking around at the desert. Alto was nowhere to be found, and that worried him a lot. He didn't want to be lost in this desert alone, and his captor also held the key to his handcuffs! His mind was drifted completely, however, as he noticed the large display in front of him. His mouth drooled and a grin spread over his face.

Right in front of him was a huge feast of foods that were strange in appearance. They looked odd, sure, but Gohan didn't care—he hadn't gotten to eat anything yesterday, and he was too afraid to ask his alien captor for food. He silently thanked the stars for the Re-Former that he figured Alto had used to make the food and dug in like a starving animal.

"Aren't you done yet?" Alto asked angrily as he approached the camp minutes later. Gohan looked up with a full mouth and swallowed hard, wiping his mouth with his arm.

"Where did you go?"

"I went scouting twenty miles east, then came back and went scouting twenty miles west. There were no people—we're going to have to keep heading north," Alto replied. The half-Saiyan nodded, gulping down one last glass of water before he stood.

"We can go right away if you want—I'm ready now."

Alto nodded in approval and the two unlikely acquaintances began another day-long trek into nothingness.

* * *

"Can we _please_ take a break?" Gohan whined. He was hot, tired, thirsty, and bored, and this caused his inner child to be brought out. He flinched as Alto unsheathed his sword.

"If you ask me again I will mercilessly slice off your head!"

"Hey! No fair, you can't use false threats!"

" _False threats_?! Why the hell do you think I _wouldn't_ kill you?!"

"B-because… you're not like them. The Saiyans. Right…?"

Alto paused in his walking and stared at the hybrid boy who kept walking. Once Gohan realized his captor had stopped, he paused as well.

"What's the matter? Ooh, are we taking a break?" the boy asked excitedly. Alto sighed and folded his arms. He was getting irritated, but the boy had been patient so far… he guessed.

"Fine. But only for one thousand trolias!"

"What's a trolia?"

"Well, a thousand trolias is the equivalent to half a universal hour. I didn't know you were stupid."

"I'm not stupid!"

Gohan sat down with his legs crossed and his arms folded, sticking his tongue out.

"What the hell are you doing, brat?" Alto asked angrily. If this was some kind of weird witchcraft or something… he watched as Gohan put his tongue back in his mouth and gnawed on it.

"It's an _earth_ thing. _You_ wouldn't understand," he replied angrily. Alto huffed as he stood there, putting his sword away contemplating on leaving the boy here, when suddenly the very brat he was thinking about cried out,

"Hey! What's that on the horizon?"

He snapped out of his thoughts and glanced in the direction the boy was pointing and noticed that there was indeed something on the horizon. It was a thin line of black, stretching miles-wide on the horizon. Suddenly he heard Gohan cry out,

"Hey, there's something over there too!"

Alto's head whipped around to see another thin line along the horizon in the opposite direction. A faint marching noise could be heard by Gohan's Saiyan ears, and Alto could feel the synchronized thumps through the ground.

"What in the world are those?!" the Arlian cried.

"I think… I think they're people…," Gohan replied nervously, gulping. Fear grew in Alto's chest as the hybrid's words sunk in.

"You mean like army formations?"

"That's… exactly what I mean."

 **Aaaaannnd… cut! That's the end of that chapter, so I hope you liked it! Were you expecting the alien to be an Arlian? I was hoping to surprise you there! Also, I want to know if the fight scene between Gohan and yellow-Gohan was clear, as it was hard to distinguish the separate actions of two people with the same name.**

 **What is going on? Are there really two armies marching right towards Alto and Gohan? And are they looking to fight the two foreigners, or is it something bigger? You'll have to find out in the next chapter of Tale of the Hybrid!**

 **See you then!**


	4. Internal and External War

**Good day! Bon jour! Bon dia! Usuku oluhle! Man, I love Google translate!**

 **Anyhow, I know you've all been patiently waiting, so here it is! The next and newest chappie of Tale of the Hybrid!**

 **enarmonios: Yay! My surprise of Alto was a success to not only you but others as well! The fact that Vegeta and Nappa destroyed Arlia does in fact lead to the main story of DBZ, but I won't reveal if/how I will incorporate it into my own! I'm thrilled to show you in later chapters!**

 **Legacy of I: I'm glad you're surprised! Thanks for your never-ending encouragement, reviews from all you awesome peeps inspire me to write more!**

 **XxTerroKing23xX: I'm glad you enjoyed Chapter 2! I know yellow-Gohan is confusing—I wanted you to be confused—but there is meaning behind it! And a good one, too!**

 **Thanks to all the nice people who favorited, reviewed and followed my story! Without further ado, let us begin the next chapter of Tale of the Hybrid!**

"This is _not_ good."

Gohan nodded in agreement as his gaze shifted between the two armies that had been growing closer to them by the minute. Maybe if they hurried they could run off to the side and escape them, or maybe they could dig a hole in the ground and hide and oh, who was he kidding? _That_ was a stupid idea.

"Hey kid, do you know how to manipulate your ki into blasts and beams?" Alto asked, suddenly snapping out of the deep thought he was seemingly in. Gohan shook his head—his father hadn't really taught him anything yet, but now he was starting to wish he had. The Arlian grunted and glanced back at the two approaching armies. The monotone beats of the marching were starting to get annoying, and he was stuck with a _Saiyan_ for his only ally.

"I see. Do you even know how to fight?" he inquired, irritation ringing in his voice. Gohan winced.

"Not… not really. I tried to teach myself, but—,"

"Dammit, you really are worthless! Why did I ever think you were a _true_ Saiyan?" Alto sighed. He gave a light chuckle as he folded his arms,

"Well, kid, looks like you're about to engage in your first battle."

Gohan nearly blacked out from horror. They really couldn't escape? He was really going to have to fight? But he hadn't even fought anyone before… ever! And one lousy head butt on one lousy person didn't really didn't count, so how was he going to stand a chance against thousands, possibly millions of soldiers? The very thought made his knees knock together and his stomach churn.

"Alto, are you _sure_ we can't escape?!" he cried.

"Toughen up kid, if you want to live you'll have to fight at some point, and that's a fact! So just shut up and prepare yourself—this isn't going to be an easy victory," Alto replied as he entered a unique, Arlian-style fighting stance that included his sword being held in his left hand. He watched curiously as Gohan tried to enter a fighting stance but was failing due to the handcuffs. He sighed heavily and pulled out the key around his neck, unlocking the cuffs.

"Listen up good, kid, if you live through this—and that's a _big_ if—the cuffs are going right back on. Got it?" he asked.

He was expecting the boy to grin and make some stupid remark, but instead Gohan silently nodded as he stood next to him and slowly entered his weak stance, gulping. The hybrid boy looked terrified, but there was something about his eyes… they were shining with determination, Alto could tell. But why so suddenly?

The truth was, Alto's words hit home for Gohan. If he wanted to get home, he had to live. And if he wanted to live, he was going to have to fight. There was no way around it. In that short moment of a few words, he remembered his mother, his father, and most importantly, his goal. That was when he felt the pulling within himself again, and his Human side began to speak.

 _"_ _Run! Hide! Do something! Just don't fight!"_

But his Saiyan side wouldn't tolerate it—it craved to fight, to persevere, to conquer.

 _"_ _No! If you fight you'll win, and then you can figure out how to get home!"_

 _"_ _But against this many people?! I can't! I'm gonna die!"_

 _"_ _That's a load of crap! You CAN and you WILL, and you know it!"_

Gohan knew he had to listen to his Saiyan side. It wasn't an option—if he wanted any chance of making it back to earth, it _had_ to take over. So he allowed it to. The dormant fire that lay like cold ashes for a month was restocked, rekindled, relit, his goal the only thing in mind. He was still terrified—Gohan may be half Saiyan, but that didn't mean he was used to fighting yet. After only two battles, literally, who would be? But it didn't matter—he was going to fight, and he was going to win.

The armies were a few hundred feet off now. Gohan was prepared for battle, and that moment it happened.

They came to a dead halt.

"What… what the hell?" Alto asked no one in particular after a few seconds, scratching his head. He looked over at Gohan, who still remained with his guard up in an unusually excellent fighting stance, then back to the thousands of bodies surrounding them. Suddenly both Arlian and demi-Saiyan saw a single person, only visible against the crowd due to the bright red clothing they wore, step out and start to wave their arms frantically. He or she appeared to be attempting to get their attention, yelling something that the Arlian could not hear.

Apparently Gohan heard, however, as he tilted his head and muttered a confused "Huh?" and Alto whipped his head over to stare at the boy, grunting.

"What did he say? Spit it out!" he demanded. Gohan didn't take his gaze off the mysterious figure, instead allowing a look of fear to grow on his face.

"He said… he said to get out of here."

The two had half a second to think about it when suddenly the ground began to shake violently. Unlike before, it wasn't because of a spaceship piercing Tudadi's crust. No, this quaking was coming from within.

"Alto…?!" Gohan cried as he struggled to keep his balance. "What's… going on?!"

The Arlian shook his head as he stared at the ground below him, noticing that it was starting to split.

"I don't know, kid! RUUUUUUUNNNNNN!" he answered as he jolted forwards, barely avoiding a newly formed ravine and grabbing Gohan roughly by the wrist as he started to run. Amazingly, he managed to dodge the new crevices that were being formed by the shifting ground. Gohan screamed through the whole ordeal, unsure of what was going on, when suddenly they were surrounded bottomless ravines on all sides.

"Crap!" Alto cried, seeing that they were surrounded. "Whatever you do just don't let go!" And in one last-ditch effort Alto lunged forwards across the wide gap, taking Gohan with him, and miraculously landing successfully on the other side. Gohan grinned as he stood up next to his captor, happy that they survived.

Their victory was short lived, however, as an awful, high-pitched screeching began to echo throughout the entire atmosphere, causing Gohan to fall to his knees and cover his ears, cursing his Saiyan hearing that no one else apparently had. He couldn't hear anything other than the screeching and Alto's voice crying, "Kid! Snap out of it, dammit!"

The screeching finally stopped, but the deafening quakes of Tudadi did not. Gohan regained coherence and looked around, startled.

"What _is_ that?!" he cried. But there was no time for a reply as the trembling of the planet reached its climax, making even the loudest of responses inaudible. What happened next, neither Gohan nor Alto would have ever been prepared for.

Emerging from the hardened, lifeless soil of the desert, was a gigantic creature three times the size of the largest skyscraper. It was a hideous creature, possessing a black body shaped like a worm—only dry and cracked instead of slimy and smooth. It had no eyes whatsoever, but it had two perfectly round mouths, one on top of the other. They were presently open, although not screeching, revealing multiples rows of teeth covered in a slimy, bright red substance resembling blood, each row as sharp as knives.

"WHAT THE HELL IS _THAT_?!" the Arlian screamed at the top of his lungs, fear evident in his voice. Gohan, by now, had filled up completely with horror—Saiyan or not, he was still under five years old. He held back terrified tears, focusing on his goal just as his Saiyan side instructed him to do. The monster now landed on its belly with a deafening thud, actually propelling Alto, Gohan, and the thousands of warriors around them a few feet into the air. It shrieked again, causing Gohan to zone out again as he slammed his hands over his ears,

"AAAAHHHH! MAKE IT STOP!" he yelled. His ears literally felt like they were going to explode. The hybrid began to stand up shakily a few minutes later when the screeching stopped. He suddenly heard a loud, war-like horn, and observed the scene that slowly formed before him.

The thousands of warriors, clad in shiny silver armor, swords made out of a shiny, dark blue metal and matching shields, all screamed their best battle-cries and charged at the beast, unleashing the wrath that they had apparently been holding in and slashing, stabbing, kicking and punching in a perfect display of chaos.

But it was all in vain.

Just as soon as they slashed and hit and thrust their swords towards the foul monster, the strange worm-like creature lifted the front of his body upwards and slammed it down, crushing the feeble aliens and causing the survivors to be slammed down. Alto, being part of a naturally generous race, felt compelled to help these people out and charged at the beast suddenly, pulling out his uniquely designed sword and firing ki beams out of his mouth towards the enemy.

"ALTO, DON'T!" Gohan screamed. He was too paralyzed with fear to follow him, and watched as the alien attacked the beast, hovering in the air as he maneuvered strategically around it. This continued on for quite some time, when suddenly the worm's mouths began to glow a bright yellow and a look of horror grew on the demi-Saiyan's face. He recognized that form of illuminated light all too well—his father had used it, and he was sure that his father's friends used it too, as well as his "uncle." In a rush of panic he sped towards the scene, ignoring any warnings his Human side desperately flung at himself, and screaming as loud as he could,

"ALTO, NO! THIS THING CAN USE KI!"

But it was too late.

Alto whirled around to face the boy, but by the time he realized what the boy was saying the bright beam was launched at him. He whirled around again to face it, too shocked to move. For a split second time seemed to freeze, and the Arlian gulped, as he was staring death in the face. Gohan watched in horror as his only ally, maybe even friend, was about to be disintegrated into nothing. It was strangely at that time that he felt a pulling inside him as a war within began. His Human side was the first to speak.

 _"_ _Alto's gonna die!"_

 _"_ _No, he's not. He's not because you're going to save him!"_

 _"_ _No, I can't! I can't do it!"_

His Saiyan side grew downright perturbed.

 _"_ _YES YOU CAN DAMMIT! WHEN ARE YOU GONNA GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL?!"_

 _"_ _P-please… I don't… I don't want to."_

 _"_ _Fine! Be weak! I don't care!"_

 _"_ _Thank—,"_

 _"_ _Alto will die, just like daddy and the earth. And just like them, you could have saved him!"_

 _"_ _What? But… n-no…!"_

 _"_ _But yes! You'll sit by and do nothing while someone dies—AGAIN! Daddy's gonna be disappointed in you! First you let him die, and then you let everyone else die! What a joke!"_

Gohan was beyond mad as he started to scream as loud as his lungs would let him, topping even the deafening attacks of the worm-monster. In a flash of rage and uncontrolled power, he flew up towards Alto and placed himself in between the Arlian and the incoming blast, putting his hands together and lowering them to his left side, looking angrily at the blast. A beautiful blue light began to form together in his hands.

"KAME…,"

Alto stared at the boy, too shocked to move.

"HAME…,"

Gohan had nothing on his mind other than home as he put every ounce of energy into his boast, blinded by rage. Alto and the now silent, motionless soldiers observed with held breath.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The blue energy beam met the golden one and overpowered it by a landslide, engulfing the scene in the soft color as the yellow beam slowly disappeared. Gohan watched until he was satisfied that no one was going to be harmed by this attack, and quickly redirected his beam out into space so as not to destroy the planet. This came at the cost of sparing the worm-monster, however, who shrieked again as it lifted up, body slamming the planet again.

Gohan let go of the blast to cover his ears, thankful that it had already escaped the atmosphere at this point. He dropped to the ground and fell to his knees, but forced himself to stand up and ignore the pounding in his head. He had a monster to kill.

The hybrid child ran up next to Alto, who turned to stare at him. His face was unchanged, but inside he was dumbfounded. Shrugging it off, he grunted.

"You should have killed it."

"At the cost of the planet and our _lives_? And here you thought _I_ was stupid."

Alto grunted at the kid's response, turning to face the beast.

"So, this… thing… it's a million times bigger than us and is trying to crush us under its weight. What do you suppose we do?" he asked doubtfully with a hint of sarcasm. He heard Gohan sigh; the boy was deep in thought.

"Well," he began, "if this beast is like any other living creature I know it's got a brain. We need to penetrate its head all the way, one hundred percent."

Alto nodded in consent, surprised he hadn't thought of that sooner. He, like all these other people, had foolishly been attacking the monster at its base, too overwhelmed by its size to think clearly.

"So who's gonna be the one to do it?" he asked.

"I will. All you need to do is distract it so I can get close to its head," Gohan responded. Alto gave a quick nod as he ran off to the opposite side of the worm-monster, hovering upwards and flailing his arms.

"HEY! YOU DUMB IDIOT, I'M OVER HERE! WOW, WHO THE HELL TAUGHT _YOU_ HOW TO BE ATTRACTIVE, HUH? YOU'RE ULGLIER THAN MY GREAT GREAT GRAND MOTHER, AND SHE HAD A BUTT FOR A FACE!" the Arlian screamed. He kept waving his arms as he shot little beams of ki out of his mouth at the beast, meant to annoy. And annoy it must have done, for the worm turned to focus its attention solely on Alto, flailing around in anger as it attempted to body slam its blue enemy.

"GOHAN, NOW!" Alto screamed as his gaze shifted to the boy. Gohan gave an affirmative single nod towards Alto and flew upwards to the worm-monster's head. He only had one shot at this—if he missed, the monster would see him; they'd be dead meat, as it would surely hurl another energy beam and quite frankly, Gohan didn't have the energy to form another Kamehameha wave.

He watched as the monster's head flailed back and forth in dismay, time almost slowing as he felt a jolt of adrenaline rush through him. Left, right, left, right… like a pendulum the head swayed back and forth, almost as if it was daring Gohan to try and beat it.

 _"_ _I only have one chance at this,"_ the hybrid thought. He was terrified but determined, knowing the latter could easily outweigh the first.

It was now or never.

The opportunity arrived.

He lunged forwards with a deafening battle cry.

And missed.

Just as he was about to pierce the beast's head with his body it jerked to the side and dodged the boy, although the monster was oblivious to the boy's presence. Gohan, who had braced himself for impact, opened his eyes as he felt none. Realizing what happened, he froze in the air and stared at the beast.

No.

This couldn't be happening.

"YOU _MISSED?!"_ Alto screamed as he flew next to the terrified boy. Gohan had no time to respond as the beast, much to his horror, did exactly what he predicted it would do. Two more yellow beams formed in the monster's mouth, making a charging noise.

"I—I—failed," the boy stammered too softly for anyone to hear. How was this possible? He had been so sure, so determined… how could he _fail_ , after everything he'd been just been through?!

Well, he would stand it no more.

In a flash of pure rage he, much to the surprise of Alto and the witnessing soldiers below, powered up again and watched as the two beams were fired, this time being too wide to escape from.

 _"_ _Dammit, this is it,"_ Alto thought sadly to himself as he prepared for death. However, the hybrid boy felt differently. Gohan rushed forwards, grabbing the massive blast with his bare hands and flying forwards to push the energy away from the soldiers, Alto and Tudadi.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Alto cried in shock. Gohan ignored him as he pushed towards the beast with all his might. The fight soon became a struggle between the weakened boy and the monstrosity of an enemy, a struggle that would determine the fate of an entire planet and countless lives. The struggle quickly started to favor the creature, and Gohan felt himself slipping.

"NO!" Gohan screamed at himself, tears streaming down his face. "REMEMBER WHAT YOU'RE FIGHTING FOR!"

Images of home flashed through Gohan's mind as he pushed against the beam. Thoughts of his father, his mother, the birds, the trees, the sunshine, the rivers, the cool breezes, the smell of the crisp fall air, the crunch of the first fallen snow, the sound of the ocean waves, the gentle swaying of the flowers in the meadow… everything he loved about his life came into his mind, and it was that longing to return to it that kept him going, despite his running on empty, so to speak.

Soon he started to move forwards farther and farther, shoving the blast deeper and deeper into the worm-monster's mouth and body until it happened.

The beast gave up.

Gohan felt the supply of energy fade away in an instant, and in a moment of great skill he maneuvered the excess energy through the monster's head and towards the sky. Just like the other blast earlier, he watched, panting heavily, as it faded into space, hopefully not destroying an unlucky star or planet.

The soldiers ran away screaming as the monster fell to the ground in an incredible impact, hoping to avoid death by being squashed and at the same time being suspended into air momentarily as if it had been another attack on the worm's part. But thankfully it was not.

The worm lay motionless, dead.

It was over.

 **Yay! Finished! What do you think? Be sure to let me know—I'm thankful for every review!**

 **Before you go, I want to recommend a couple of stories to everyone that I'm sure you'll enjoy.**

 **-A Walk in the Rain, by Legacy of I**

 **-Abandoned Memories, by XxTerroking23xX**

 **-Cold World, by jjgp1112**

 **-Gohan shattered timeline, by Gohanforever**

 **Well, that just about sums it up! What'll happen to Tudadi and its inhabitants now that the worm-monster is defeated? Will Gohan ever be the same person again after this battle? Read to find out, only in the next chapter of Tale of the Hybrid!**

 **See you later!**


	5. Afterwards

**Hello, sunshineyday here! Sorry for the update gap. I started learning guitar, and my birthday was last weekend too, so I was caught up in all that exciting stuff.**

 **Anyways, I want to give a little thanks to everyone who is reading this story! I really hope you enjoy it!**

 **Legacy of I: I'm glad you liked it! Gohan will most likely listen to his Saiyan side when he's in danger, kind of following the show.**

 **Smithback: Thank you!**

 **xXTerroKing23Xx: I'm happy the dialogue flows easily. Rest assured, Gohan will not have a fear of worms!** **J** **In the show he always enjoyed nature, even bugs, and the monster was NOT a cute wittle itty bitty worm! Seriously, though, I really do appreciate your advice!**

 **Well, that brings us to the next chapter of Tale of the Hybrid, so please do enjoy!**

 _Kill._

 _That was the only thing on Gohan's mind as his arm tightened around the other Gohan's neck._

 _"_ _Wait a second, I'm choking my other self? Wait, that means… I'm the yellow me now?"_ _he wondered as he dug a knee into his counterpart's back, causing a loud cry of pain mixed with a continuous gasp for air to come out of the blue hybrid._

 _"_ _No matter. I'd much rather be strong and fearless than a pile of weak, pathetic slime."_

 _Suddenly Gohan felt a sharp pain and yelped, releasing his grip on the blue-Gohan and staring at the deep, bleeding bite mark on his forearm. Angrily, he looked up at blue-Gohan and spat, glaring daggers at him._

 _"_ _I-I'm sorry… I d-didn't want to hurt-hurt you… but you were gonna… you were gonna kill me…," blue-Gohan gasped, tears streaming down his face. His eyes shone with pure terror. Gohan, disgusted, clenched his teeth in anger and re-entered a solid fighting stance._

 _"_ _That was a low, pathetic blow, just like how you're pathetic!" he yelled._

 _"_ _You're a disgrace to the Saiyan race and to the universe! I'm going to do us all a favor and rid everybody of you!" And he charged at blue-Gohan angrily, throwing as many punches as hard as he could at his frightened counterpart._

 _Surprisingly, blue-Gohan's speed was far greater than his own, although Gohan could not figure out why. Every punch he hurled at the boy he dodged, ironically with a terrified look on his face._

 _"_ _P-please… don't you see? Fighting… fighting is pointless!" blue-Gohan pleaded. But Gohan would not listen._

 _"_ _How are you so damn fast?!" he screamed, enraged as he went for a kick to blue-Gohan's side. His counterpart merely ducked backwards, avoiding the kick and angering him more._

 _"_ _Please… just stop this!" blue-Gohan cried again as he started to fly away into the vast expanse as fast as he could. Gohan, although not near as fast as his other self, powered up and flew right after him._

* * *

Gohan's eyes fluttered open and squinted at the blinding light that surrounded him. Confused, he sat up and realized that he was in a soft, fluffy bed in a large, cozy room that had sunlight beaming in through its many open windows. But... how did he get here?

Suddenly the only two extravagantly carved wooden doors that lead to this room were shoved open, and standing in the doorway was a strange person who appeared to be, in short, a humanoid canine. He had cream-colored fur that mingled with grey and copper fur in a patch over his ears, and eyes colored a medium brown. He wore a strange outfit that was bright red, and held a beautifully carved wooden stick that had a glass heart on it (a valentine heart, not a human heart, just so you know). His tail was swishing back and forth leisurely and his black nose twitched amusedly as he approached the demi-Saiyan.

"Good morning, Gohan. How are you faring on this beautiful day?" he asked in a friendly voice. Gohan blinked, confused, but managed to reply,

"I-I'm good, I guess… uh, who are you, and where exactly am I?" He didn't want to be rude but he was _really_ confused. Thankfully the stranger in front of him didn't seem to mind as he smiled.

"My name is General Taitasu. You are currently in the hospital of the Wanwan Village, under the care of the Inu people. You have been out cold for several days now, but is to be expected after the amount of power I saw you display in the battle against the great Kemonokoto," he responded.

"Wait, that was that monster, right? You were there?" Gohan inquired, his mind running furiously. Suddenly his face lit in realization, "Oh, you were the one that tried to warn us about that thing!"

General Taitasu gave a short single nod. "Indeed. I did not think you had the power to destroy such a beast, but I was wrong. You displayed a vast amount of bravery, and I respect you for that," he explained.

"So... I killed it?" Gohan asked.

"Yes. You did what no one else could. That is actually why I am here, Gohan. You see, the king of our people has requested to meet you. He wants to reward you for your heroic actions, and I was instructed to bring you to him as soon as you awoke. You must ready yourself now and meet me in the courtyard as soon as you are finished," Taitasu explained. "Try to be ready as soon as possible."

Gohan smiled and nodded as the general left and the doors were shut. He saw an outfit sitting on a chair in the corner and, figuring it was his, put it on. The royal purple fabric of the tunic felt like silk, although it was not feminine in appearance at all. Draped over the shoulders was a silver chainmail, the pants were a solid white, and the boots and fingerless gloves were a dashing shade of charcoal grey. Gohan grinned as he looked down at himself—he felt like a knight.

Exiting the doors to his room and following the map on the wall that he memorized (thanking his mother once more for his brain-enhancing studies), he managed to make it out of the hospital and into the courtyard. The courtyard was all desert, with that bright orange dirt, surrounded by an elegant iron fence with two large, open gates. In the center was a towering fountain made of glass that was shaped like the heart on Taitasu's staff. It was quite impressive.

Off to the side, near the fountain, was general Taitasu, and he was standing and talking to another person. This one looked feminine, with the same white, creamy fur all over. She had a tiny pink nose and peach colored fur on both of her floppy ears, and was dressed in an outfit similar to the general's, only it had a skirt and was light pink. Suddenly Taitasu caught a glance of the hybrid standing there and said something. Both of the Inunians turned to face him.

"Ah, I told you it would be perfect on him!" the female cried as she grabbed Gohan by the shoulders, spinning him around and around, inspecting him with her brown eyes. "Yes, it _is_ perfect on him!"

Gohan blushed slightly and grinned while Taitasu slapped his forehead. "Honestly, Haidi, when will you quit fussing over the uniforms?" he muttered. The girl, whose name was apparently Haidi, heard him and huffed folding her arms.

"Well, you would fuss over it if you had to sit there for two hours sewing it!" she scolded. Taitasu sighed and shook his head, turning to Gohan.

"This is my sister, Haidi. She was put in charge of designing the uniforms for the army and is a little… overbearing, if you hadn't noticed," he explained. Gohan nodded in understanding, smiling at Haidi—she reminded him of his mother a little…

"The uniform is great!" he complemented. Haidi grinned.

"Aww, you're so cute! Unlike my brother here," she teased, sticking out her tongue towards Taitasu, who sighed again and folded his arms.

"We really should be meeting the king now. Let's get going, Gohan," the general said as he started walking. Gohan followed him, turning around to walk backwards and waving.

"Bye Haidi, it was nice meeting you!" he hollered. Haidi waved back, grinning widely despite her underbite. "The same to you!" she replied. Gohan turned around and followed Taitasu again, hopping into what appeared to be Tudadi's version of a car, and drove off.

"I hope you are used to traveling by machine," the General said.

"Yeah, this is like a car on earth. I've been in those a couple of times," Gohan replied. Not much was said after that, besides Taitasu giving the driver their destination. For the next two hours they rode in silence, each preoccupied with their own thoughts.

* * *

"We're here," Gohan heard Taitasu say. He awoke with a start, yawning.

"Sorry, I dozed off," he said as he opened the door of the vehicle. He felt slightly guilty—he should have been taking in this new culture, in awe at first at the cobblestone streets that were filled with plenty more Inunians and vehicles, and the beautifully designed buildings that represented a culture like no other. But he was so tired! Oh well.

Getting out, he stared at the castle in front of him, now in complete awe at the palace. It was… massive! Made of a white, marble-like material, there were towers upon towers of the majestically, architecturally beautiful stuff surrounding the main building, each individual tower capped with a triangular roof made of what looked like silver. The area surrounding it was covered in beautiful purple grass, and there were purple bushes donned with white flowers everywhere. In the center was another glass fountain, again shaped like a heart.

Guards, all wearing the same blindingly white suits, stood on guard at the edges of the castle's courtyard, holding alienated rifles stiffly in front of them. Gohan stared at everything in interest as they approached the castle doors, Taitasu opening them himself.

Standing right there, off to the side, was another guard. He was dressed in a green uniform and had brown fur that mingled with dark brown, light brown, copper and tan fur all over. His black nose and brown-ish muzzle was longer and more narrow than Taitasu's or Haidi's, and his brown eyes shone with determination as he attempted to stand stiff.

"Hello, Ratchetto," Taitasu greeted as the one addressed jumped, startled.

"Hello, General Taitasu sir!" he chanted, giving a salute. Taitasu chuckled.

"Please escourt us to the king, Ratchetto."

"Yes sir! I am required to bring the… uh…," Ratchetto pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, "Ar…lee…ann… the Arlian as well!" he said, pointing to the blue figure who was staring out a window. Gohan's eyes widened as he saw his… are they friends yet? His friend... standing and gazing out a window.

"Alto!" he cried, running over to the Arlian. Alto turned to face Gohan, who swore that his friend was smiling inwardly, at least.

"Hey, brat. Or should I call you glory-stealer, destroying the monster all by yourself like that?" Alto asked. Gohan froze mid-run, his face twisting into a sad one. He really hoped they could be friends…

"It was wrong of me to kill that thing all by myself like that, I'm sorry," he said in a disappointed voice, his head hanging. Much to his surprise, though, Alto laughed.

"Kid, you take things way too seriously. I would be squashed to death if it weren't for that damn strength of yours… by the way, I want some answers on that! You never once told me you could fly, or manipulate ki, or _kill a monster_!" he cried. Gohan laughed, grinning widely and rubbing the back of his head as he unknowingly imitated his father.

"You see, that's what's funny! I didn't—,"

"Excuse me sir, but we must get going sir!" Ratchetto interrupted as he started walking. Gohan nodded as he, Alto, and Taitasu all followed the green-donned guard down a series of gorgeous white hallways until they reached two silver double doors.

"Remember you must bow before speaking to King Osuka, and only speak when you are spoken to unless you want punishment!" Ratchetto awkwardly demanded. With that said, the doors were opened and a beautiful white throne room was revealed.

Gohan admired the room, with its white walls and floors and royal blue tapestries and carpets, decorated with glass chandeliers and fountains that one again were shaped like hearts. The two long, narrow carpets ran up to a set of stairs that led to an extravagant silver throne, and sitting in the throne was another humanoid dog—the king.

He had snow white fur, although it was short, not fluffy like Taitasu's or Ratchetto's. He had a big brown nose and matching brown eyes, and sat stiffly in his royal blue tunic, decorated fancily with silver threads that formed all sorts of beautiful designs. He also wore a silver crown donned with royal blue gems, forged into a beautiful design. Gohan was not intimidated in the least, however—the king's eyes shone with unwavering friendliness. Noticing the others bowing, the hybrid followed suit.

"You must be the ones who saved our fair planet, Gohan and Alto," the king stated in an aged but cheery voice. The four stood up straight again, Ratchetto taking his leave.

"Indeed, sire, this is Gohan, the one who defeated the Kemonokoto, and his friend Alto," Taitasu explained respectfully. Gohan watched as King Osuka's lips curled into a smile and he spoke.

"I am surprised one so young was able to defeat such a might monster. Did you know that the Kemonokoto has been terrorizing this planet for over five thousand years?"

Gohan shook his head. "No, sir, I didn't." The king chuckled.

"Well, not anymore—thanks to you and your friend. Yes… thanks to you and your friend, I can rule my people in peace once more. There will be no more war against the Kemonokoto or anything of the sort, and I owe it all to you. I am very pleased—so pleased that I will grant you anything you desire so long as it is within my power," he said.

Gohan's eyes grew wide. This was it! This was his ticket to home! Everything he had hoped and wished for since he left home was finally going to come true! He could dance right about now were it not for the fact that he were in the presence of the planet's royalty.

"King Osuka, the only thing I want is a spaceship so that I may get back to my home planet," he said as calmly and politely as possible. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alto nod in agreement.

"Make that two, sire, as I wish to explore the universe as well," the Arlian said. However, the king frowned.

"Tudadi does not possess knowledge of building spacecraft, which means we do not have any spaceships already built. I am sorry to say that I cannot give you that," he stated sadly. Alto sighed heavily and hung his head.

"We're stuck here for the rest of our lives," he muttered sadly, accepting his fate, and Gohan was about to burst into tears. Suddenly Taitasu spoke up, surprising them both.

"Forgive me if I sound demanding, sire, but couldn't you design a spaceship using Gohan and Alto's spaceships? I believe they're still on the planet," he asked. King Osuka's nose twitched in thought and his furry tail thumped against his throne as he sat in silence for a minute.

"I suppose you could send someone out to retrieve the spaceships. My best scientist would rather enjoy dissecting such equipment, of that I am certain. It is settled, then. We will try our best to grant your wish," he finally answered with a smile.

"Hooray!" Gohan cried as he jumped in the air for joy, grinning from ear to ear and chanting, "I get to go home! I get to go home!" Alto folded his arms, chuckling, just as ecstatic as the demi-Saiyan but less willing to show it. Taitasu had a content smile on his face, as did the king. It seemed as if things had worked themselves out, for now at least.

The spaceships were retrieved and King Osuka's best scientist was delighted to have such an assignment, more than ready to get started. Designing a combination of two complex spaceships from two totally antithetical planets would not be an easy feat from one inexperienced in space travel, however, so it was deduced rather quickly that it would take some time… perhaps a lot of time.

In the meanwhile, Alto had taken Gohan under his wing as a student, teaching him the Arlian style of fighting as a way to honor his people and pass down his heritage, as his race was dead. Gohan enjoyed training under Alto, and although the Inunians knew nothing about martial arts, Gohan (for the most part) enjoyed the studies of math and science they taught him, feeling that he was somehow pleasing his mother by learning all he could.

And so time passed on quickly, as it does when one has much to do, and soon it was two weeks before the spaceships would be totally completed and ready to launch, a year having passed already.

Unfortunately, it was also two weeks before tragedy would strike once again in the life of Son Gohan.

 **Bang! Are you curious as to what happens? I hope so! This chapter is kind of an intermission between sagas, so to speak.**

 **Will Gohan and Alto leave Tudadi? Or will something stop them? And if it does, is it some** ** _thing_** **or some** ** _one_** **? You can only find out on the next chapter of Tale of the Hybrid!**

 **See you later!**


	6. Departure and Arrival

**Yoo-hoo! …Isn't that a brand of chocolate milk?**

 **Anyhow, I finished the next chapter of Tale of the Hybrid just in time for Thanksgiving! Hooray! Thanks to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed… it means a lot!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything related or pertaining to Dragonball Z.**

 **smithback: I'm happy you liked my chapter!**

 **Legacy of I: Aw, shucks… you** ** _do_** **realize that all these encouraging words help** ** _so_** **much, right?**

 **XxTerroKing23xX: Thanks for another amazing review! You're actually hoping more accurately than you think… I was kinda surprised! But I don't want to spoil anything!**

 **Now, onto the chapter!**

"KAAAAME… HAAAAME… HAAAAAA!"

Gohan flung the Kamehameha wave into the air towards Alto, an excited light shining in his eyes. The blast wasn't strong enough to kill, but it _was_ strong enough to do serious damage if the Arlian wasn't prepared.

Fortunately, he was prepared as he crossed his arms, blocking the energy wave as it charged at him with full force. The impact lasted about thirty seconds before it died down, the blue beam dissipating into the hot Tudadian air. Alto unfolded his arms and chuckled, panting heavily.

"Pretty good… you've improved a lot since… since we first started training," he huffed as he started descending to the ground.

"You think so?" Gohan inquired, huffing for air as well. They had been training for twelve hours now, and both were exhausted. The hybrid didn't have time to listen to any reply from his friend, however, as Alto's mouth started glowing and he was immediately engulfed in a beam of transparent white energy. Gohan gave a short scream of pain before falling to the ground, his purple tunic completely singed.

"N-no fair! We were done!" the hybrid cried, sitting up. He frowned and folded his arms, pouting as the Arlian laughed.

"Never let your guard down until you _know_ that it's over," Alto lectured.

"Well… are we done _now_?"

"Yeah, kid, we're done training for now. But you've _got_ to remember to keep your defense up—to have offense as your defense is okay, but you should be able to switch at any given time. Clear?"

Gohan nodded, taking every word to heart. Alto had crude methods of teaching—like simply attacking until Gohan learned the right times to block—but Gohan had improved a lot over the course of a year. The beginning of training was rather difficult for him, as he had no idea how to use ki or really fight, even after his battle against the Kemonokoto. Yes, the first time Alto had taken him out to train he assumed that Gohan already knew how to use ki, and the first conversation on the topic would always be a vivid memory burnt into the boy's mind…

* * *

 _"_ _Alright kid, today is the day you get to prove your worth to the universe. Today begins your training under me!" exclaimed Alto, excitement dripping from his words. It had been a week since Tudadi was saved from the monster that had been terrorizing them for over five thousand years, and although Alto immediately insisted training the boy right away the doctors had ordered him to allow Gohan to rest. Gohan was actually surprised the Arlian wanted anything to do with him, since he had been so distrusting of him at first. But it seemed like he had grown on him… thankfully!_

 _The last few days had been enjoyable for Gohan as he rested peacefully, playing the Inunian version of chess with Ratchetto and occasionally General Taitasu, but now… now he stood there nervously in the middle of the never-ending desert, the place Alto had brought them to train._

 _"_ _O-okay… I'm ready…," he said quietly. There was silence after that. Even Gohan was shocked—his words were totally unconvincing. The boy winced as the Arlian folded his arms and exhaled deeply, a sure sign of frustration._

 _"_ _You are more than ready, kid, and you better be damn sure you believe it if you want to become a great warrior!" he scolded, causing Gohan to flinch in fear, "Are we clear?"_

 _"_ _Y-yes sir!"_

 _"_ _Good," the Arlian said, amused at being called sir. "I want to begin by having you fire ten of those Kamie-Hamie-Ha things that you seem to know so well."_

 _Suddenly Gohan grinned widely and rubbed the back of his head in that famous fashion, laughing nervously, causing Alto to tilt his head in confusion._

 _"_ _Haha! Alto, you're gonna find this super funny, cause, you know, you've got such a GREAT sense of humor…," he began nervously. Alto was not the least bit amused, however, and tapped his foot in annoyance to prove it._

 _"_ _Spit it out, kid."_

 _"_ _Well, what's so funny…," Gohan explained, "…well, you know how I flew and threw ki blasts and all that, cause you were there… right…?"_

 _"_ _Aaaannnd…?"_

 _"_ _Well, the thing is… that I don't exactly… know how to use ki… you know, right now. Isn't that funny?"_

 _Gohan's laughter ceased as the Arlian stood there, completely dumbfounded. They stood there for what felt like ages—to Gohan, at least._

 _"_ _What the hell do you mean you don't know how to do all that stuff?!" Alto finally cried. "I freaking WATCHED YOU do all of it!" Gohan bit his lip as he stared at the ground, tapping his fingers together._

 _"_ _I don't know, honest! When that power came out of me, it was like something took over my mind. I was in a blind rage, seeing you about to die… it reminded me of the fact that my family is probably most likely dead. I don't really know how to explain it… I'm sorry," he said, looking up to see Alto shift his weight, his arms folded again. The Arlian was surprised that he was the trigger to this boy's phenomenal power that day although he didn't show it._

 _"_ _Well, this is gonna set us back a lot."_

 _"_ _I'm sorry, I—,"_

 _"_ _I don't want to hear it! We're gonna start from square one." Upon seeing the boy's face, however, his tone softened slightly._

 _"_ _But hey, maybe since you've manipulated ki once it'll be easier the second time… you know, like a natural instinct or something," Alto said. "Now, let's start by getting that energy of yours into a tangible form…,"_

* * *

Gohan himself really couldn't explain why he couldn't use ki after defeating the Kemonokoto, but the two of them really did start from square one, and Gohan found it quite frustrating—having to learn something you knew you were capable of already. Thankfully, Alto's predictions were somewhat correct—while Gohan still had a hard time using ki at first, perfecting it came a lot faster than most of the Arlian children, according to Alto.

As for the basic fighting itself, Gohan had no problems with that. He had progressed faster than Alto had ever imagined he would, even for a demi-Saiyan. It was quite impressive, really. Gohan enjoyed it, too—he found the Arlian style of martial arts to be quite elegant and graceful, not stocky and blunt like the stance he had seen his father take up. Not that there was anything wrong with his father's stance…

"HEY! Are you listening?!"

Gohan was snapped out of his thoughts as he turned to his Arlian sensei, his face slightly red.

"S-sorry!"

"Forget about it. Let's go back—I want to tell you something over dinner," Alto said as he took off into the sky. Gohan followed closely, staring at the alien with curious eyes. What did Alto have to tell him? In the year he'd spent here training, this was a first. His thoughts drifted after a minute, however, and he soon found himself mindlessly watching the ground zoom by as they headed back to civilization.

* * *

Gohan sat down at the table with an excited light in his eyes—he was, after all, half-Saiyan! As the food was served by the cooks of the Wanwan Village, particularly high piles of it set in front of Gohan, the boy's expression lit up and he felt his mouth water. He refrained from drooling all over the table, as he could feel the frying pan on his head if he did such a thing even if his mother _wasn't_ here.

The boy began to dig in in his usual manner, Alto watching him in disgust as he had every night. He didn't make his usual remarks about it being repulsive or vile—in fact, he was abnormally silent. And guess which observant five-and-a-half-year-old noticed?

"Alto, are you okay?" Gohan asked as he stopped eating, staring at his friend with concern. The Arlian nodded.

"Yeah, kid, I'm fine. I need to talk to you."

"Okay…,"

Alto swished the liquid in his glass around nervously, as he wasn't sure how the boy was going to take this. "Well, first of all, I'll be leaving tomorrow." Gohan gasped.

"But the spaceships won't be ready for two weeks!" he protested.

"I'm not leaving the _planet_ , brat, so calm down. It's a custom for Arlians to enter deep meditation before a big event in their lives—and this whole entering space thing is a _pretty_ big event. But I can't do it here, it's too noisy, so I'll be camping in the wilderness," Alto explained.

"Oh, well, that's cool I guess," Gohan said casually. Alto seemed rather upset about this, but why? It wasn't a big deal.

"That's not it, though. I won't be getting back until the day of the launch, so I wanted to clarify something else," the Arlian continued.

"The thing is...," he hesitated, "…our paths will be separating when we leave this planet. I know you wanted me to come to your home planet with you, but I don't think that's very… practical."

Gohan's eyes widened, tears beginning to form in them. "But Alto, you're my friend now! I can't just not see you anymore!" he cried. Alto sighed heavily.

"You have to understand, Gohan, after my home planet was destroyed… I… it changed me. I don't think I'll ever be cut out for staying in one place ever again. And besides, living on earth would be awkward. If everybody looks like you then I'll stand out _way_ too much. And didn't you tell me your mother is overprotective of you? I highly doubt she'd want an alien around, you know. It would turn you into a 'delinquent'."

The Saiyan hybrid frowned deeply. Although he hated parting ways, it _did_ seem a little unpractical for a nine-foot-tall bug guy to be living with them. And he didn't think he could _ever_ convince his mother to like Alto.

"O-okay… I… I understand," he said not without disappointment.

"Good. Now stop crying, kid, I taught you better," the Arlian said. Gohan smiled faintly—Alto truly did care for him, but in his own way. The Arlian would _never_ admit it, though—it was almost like somebody he used to know. Wait, no. Somebody he was going to know? More like somebody he was going to know but ended up not knowing. Someone just as harsh yet caring as Alto…**

Dinner was ended as the boy's appetite was bitterly diminished, and immediately afterwards Gohan excused himself quietly and went into his room at king Osuka's palace, a zombified look on his face as he slowly walked down the hallways. His room was beautiful, with a huge, royal blue bed and matching tapestries on the wall, and a cozy little fireplace in the corner where he did all his studies. Gohan sluggishly fired a ki blast at the wood in it the fireplace and it lit. Then he plopped down onto his bed face first as he began to cry.

He kind of knew Alto wouldn't go back to earth with him, but that didn't mean he didn't desperately hope he would. To hear the words, though… it disappointed him greatly. And he wished there was a better way to do things, but not even his intelligent mind knew how to fix this.

He tried to think of every possible reason for Alto to come with him, subconsciously drifting into sleep.

* * *

The next morning was depressing for Son Gohan, to say the least, as he stood at the outer edge of the Wanwan Village with general Taitasu and Alto.

"Just remember that there are still dangers out there, although those animals are much more minor than the Kemonokoto," the general said as he handed Alto a bag. The Arlian nodded as he slung it across him.

"Yeah, I hear that some of the beasts lurking in the nearby forests are quite… terrifying," he said as he turned to Gohan. The boy nodded vigorously and shuddered, terrible thoughts of the Tudadi Terror entering his brain. He almost threw up, too—no matter how hard he tried, he never would forget the smell of that awful… thing.

General Taitasu smirked, folding his arms. "Indeed. If you are not back on the day of the launch, we will postpone it and a horn will be sounded to let you know this—rest assured, you will be able to hear it. Good luck, my friend," he said. Alto nodded once, then turned back to Gohan.

"Don't be too upset, kid—we'll get to say goodbye for real in two weeks, alright? And I expect you to keep training while I'm gone! Don't slack off, you hear me?" he joked. Gohan didn't respond. Seeing the boy's troubled face, Alto's voice softened.

"Look, it's gonna be alright. I don't want you to be upset, okay?" he asked quietly. He watched the boy nod, and then, much to his surprise, Gohan jumped up and threw his arms around him. Alto stood there uncomfortably, but eventually returned the hug. Gohan was right—he _did_ care about him, even though he thought it ironic that his new friend was the same race as the ones who destroyed his planet.

Gohan hopped back downed and grinned widely, feeling much happier now. Alto stared back at him, internally grinning just as widely.

"See you 'round, kid," Alto said.

"Have fun! Take care!" Gohan yelled in reply, waving until Alto disappeared off the horizon. As soon as he was gone, his smile faded.

"Shall we go back?" Taitasu asked.

"Um… I'll follow you in a minute, you can go ahead," replied Gohan.

"As you wish."

Gohan was left there, standing alone to stare at the what should have been gorgeous sunrise—although to the boy's eyes it was tainted. Why had he been so upset earlier? Alto would be back, and it wasn't their final farewell… but the young demi-Saiyan couldn't shake the feeling that that was the last time he'd see his friend.

* * *

"What the heck was _that_?!" Gohan screamed as he sat up, startled by the large quaking of the ground as dust fell from the shifting ceilings. He quickly hopped out of bed and threw his purple uniform on, opening the door and running down the halls. The rumbling had stopped by now but that didn't mean Gohan had set it aside so soon.

 _"_ _So help me it it's another Kemonokoto…,"_ the demi-Saiyan thought to himself as he turned a corner. Alto had been gone for five days now and he wasn't sure if he could take another one on alone.

It took him ten minutes just to run all the way through the palace and out into the courtyard, where he was greeted by Ratchetto. He was looking around nervously, but when he caught sight of Gohan his face lit.

"Gohan, there you are! We have to hurry, right now!" he cried, running up to the hybrid. Gohan began to follow him as they ran at a steady pace.

"What just happened?" he inquired, a nervous tone in his voice. "Is there another Kemonokoto?"

"No, it's not that— _thankfully_ ," Ratchetto responded, "But it _might_ be much worse. Another spaceship just crashed, five miles due west of the village."

Fear shot right through Gohan as they caught up to General Taitasu and the rest of the army, who had begun to head towards the site should this newcomer be a threat.

"General Taitasu!" Gohan cried as he started to march next to the general.

"Hello, Gohan, I see you're here now. What's wrong—I mean, besides this… whole situation?" Taitasu inquired.

"Taitasu, do you think this is going to end badly?"

The general continued walking, a monotone, battle-ready expression on his face. His voice disagreed with his seeming certainty, however, as he replied,

"It's a 50-50 chance. Friend or foe, we will deal with them accordingly. Everything will turn out fine in the end."

Gohan nodded silently, staring absently ahead of him as they continued walking.

* * *

An hour of silent marching passed. Suddenly the demi-Saiyan saw something in the distance, and his eyes widened. "Hey, look! I can see where it landed!" Gohan exclaimed as he broke into a run. Taitasu and Ratchetto were hot on his heels while the army continued their steady pace. The trio soon approached a massive crater carved right into Tudadi's crust, and when Gohan ran to see what was in the middle of it his heart pretty much stopped beating and his face paled dramatically.

"No way… it—it can't be…!" he breathed as he felt his fists clench tightly. But it was.

There, in the middle of the perfectly round crater, was a perfectly round silver and red space pod, identical to the one Gohan's uncle sent him off in. Gohan noticed, however, that it was scratched, dented and thoroughly beaten up.

"That looks like _your_ spaceship!" Taitasu exclaimed.

The hybrid gulped. As much as he refused to believe it, the facts were right there in front of him. His mind raced rapidly as it tried to produce every reason as to why it could be certain there was no Saiyan inside that pod. Didn't that uncle of his say that the last remaining Saiyans worked under someone? That meant that there were other people who would most likely use the same spacecraft as them, right? Right. And that meant it was a decent chance that whoever was in there might not be bad. Or at least not as strong. But then again—

"It's opening!"

Gohan's thoughts were snapped into reality as he realized that the door to that awful thing really _was_ opening.

"Whatever you do, do _not_ let your guard down!" the demi-Saiyan warned as he entered his fighting stance, by now pretty much perfected. Taitasu as Ratchetto readied the spears they were holding, and the army cocked their guns, ready to fire if needed.

The door hissed as it swung open completely, and everyone stood there, silent and in shock. Inside the pod was a person that startlingly resembled a human. He wore a tight, bright blue suit with gold and white Saiyan armor, with matching boots and gloves that were also white. He had extremely tall, flame-like hair, and one of his eyes was scarred shut. His one good one would have most likely been dark in color, if it was open.

The truth was, this new person was knocked out cold—barely alive, it seemed, as he was breathing heavily, covered in cuts, bruises, burns and blood. Gohan stared nervously at him while a few of the soldiers proceeded to carry him towards camp under the general's orders, although he barely heard anything said around him. All he could focus on was one thing.

The dreaded feeling he'd had in his stomach all day had multiplied by a million.

 **Okay, I'm really curious as to whether or not you saw this coming, so tell me if you did or didn't!**

 ****Good job if you knew who I was talking about here!**

 **What's going to happen now that another person has arrived on the scene? What are their intentions? You can only find out on the next chapter of Tale of the Hybrid!**

 **See you then, and happy Thanksgiving!**


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